“Should I stay or should I go? Every founder asks themselves this question at one point or another,” says Alex Raymond, as he tackles the often taboo topic of CEO succession and transition with Evgeny Shadchnev, author of “Startup CEO Succession: A Founder’s Guide to Leadership Transition.” Evgeny shares his experience of stepping down as CEO of Makers, a software developing bootcamp he led for seven years, and discusses a nine-step roadmap for succession planning.

In this episode, Alex and Evgeny emphasize the importance of early and open conversations about succession, addressing fears, and the need for careful planning. Evgeny highlights the emotional challenges founders face, like burnout and loss of identity, and underscores the necessity of recognizing and managing these issues. He also explores post-transition pathways for founders and stresses the importance of supporting the new CEO without undermining them.

Join Alex and Evgeny in this episode to gain valuable insights for strategic and thoughtful planning to support a smooth succession and successful transition.

Quotes

• “What I find really, really meaningful on a personal level is making a difference in someone’s life on a personal level.” (12:20 | Evgeny Shadchnev)
• “One thing I learned since stepping down is that nearly every founder CEO considers it at some point. I was absolutely not an exception. Not everyone chooses to. But everyone asks themselves the question: ‘Am I the right person for the next stage of the journey as the job inevitably changes?’” (21:50 | Evgeny Shadchnev)
• “The job of a founder or CEO really changes over time. And the more the founder reflects on what’s going to come next year or in two years’ time, and the more alignment there is with the board, the higher the chances that a win-win, successful, smooth transition is going to be found.” (24:34 | Evgeny Shadchnev)
• “No one leaves their startup they’ve been running for 10 years full of energy. Nearly everyone needs time to rest and recover, slow down, and just get in touch with what it is that they need deep inside. It’s also important to reflect because founders often quite literally don’t see opportunities ahead of them… So taking time to slow down and rest and reflect on your career options can be invaluable because this moment is truly precious.” (32:02 | Evgeny Shadchnev)
• “CEO succession takes time. The more time you have, the higher the chances that you will have a good succession.” (37:48 | Evgeny Shadchnev)

Links

Connect with Evgeny Shadchnev:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shadchnev/

Website: https://www.evgeny.coach/

Connect with Alex Raymond:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afraymond/

Website: https://consciousentrepreneur.us/

HiveCast.fm is a proud sponsor of The Conscious Entrepreneur Podcast.

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

“A pivot really is a second chance,” says Jason Shen, author of “Path to Pivot.” In this episode, Alex Raymond talks with Jason about the critical decision-making process of whether to continue, pivot, or close a business. Shen emphasizes leveraging assets and insights to create a market advantage, highlighting the rarity and value of a well-executed pivot.

Jason recounts his shift from writing about resilience to focusing on pivots, inspired by his experiences with his Y Combinator-backed companies, Ridejoy and Headlight. While Ridejoy’s pivot failed, Headlight’s pivot led to a successful exit to Facebook, forming the foundation of his book.

The episode delves into the mental and emotional facets of pivoting, introducing Jason’s “Align, Explore, Commit” framework for systematic pivoting. Jason and Alex also discuss “shooting the zombie,” the tough call to pivot or close a business that can’t meet venture capital expectations.

Insightful anecdotes and practical advice make this episode a valuable guide for entrepreneurs facing pivotal decisions with resilience and strategic thinking.

Jason is offering listeners of The Conscious Entrepreneur Podcast a discount code for 50% off any version of The Path to Pivot ebook. Just head over to https://jasonshen.gumroad.com/l/path-to-pivot and use code CONSCIOUS to get 50% off.

Quotes

• “If you’re at your wit’s end, if you really have no idea where to go, if the walls start to close in, then maybe a dramatic shift may be more important. And that’s where a pivot comes into play. A pivot is to say ‘What if we change the fundamentals of this business?’ Keeping some parts the same, maybe the team is the same, maybe the product is the same, maybe the market is the same, but you make some other dramatic shift. You go from selling it one time to a lower monthly fee. A business model change is still a pretty meaningful change.” (14:43 | Jason Shen)
• “A good pivot is always based on some kind of new insight. It involves learning something from the world that you’ve already been operating in that certainly gives you a leg up, an advantage, and that’s what you have. You’re able to shift your product, but position it for a new problem, position it for a new market, but sort of retain a lot of the experiences that you’d built, which is super important.” (22:12 | Jason Shen)
• “You have to have insights based on what you’ve developed as a business and assets that you’ve developed that can create some kind of advantage for you so that you can actually win in this market and sort of earn the right to keep playing this game. And the reality is, it takes time to build anything. It takes time to even make an attempt at anything. And so, a pivot really is a second chance.” (32:55 | Jason Shen)

Links

Connect with Jason Shen:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonshen/

Website: https://www.jasonshen.com/

The Path to Pivot: https://jasonshen.gumroad.com/l/path-to-pivot

Connect with Alex Raymond:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afraymond/

Website: https://consciousentrepreneur.us/

HiveCast.fm is a proud sponsor of The Conscious Entrepreneur Podcast.

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

“I like to think of life as a trilogy,” says keynote speaker and entrepreneur Keith Roberts. Along with mentor Ryan Avery, Keith set a Guinness World Record for the longest public speaking marathon by a team of two, promoting their co-authored historical novel, “The Eternal Flame: Ancient Wisdom for Today’s Modern Leader.”

Keith joins The Conscious Entrepreneur podcast to share insights from his 30-year practice in Buddhism, founding and selling his company Zenman, and participating in the global nonprofit Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and MIT’s Entrepreneur Masters Program. He discusses the power of gratitude in creating your ideal life, building effective habits, and the importance of writing down your goals to achieve them faster.

Keith co-created the OAK journal, a 90-day journaling framework with prompts, visualization techniques, and mantras to help keep you on track. He shares his experience of letting go of his first company and the dangers of linking your identity to your business. Learn about the “sunk equity fallacy” and why practicing gratitude is more than just compiling a checklist.

Join Keith and host Alex Raymond as they discuss thought leaders like Joe Dispenza and Ryan Holiday, and explore what’s next in Keith’s journey.

Quotes

• “I had this epiphany that I was trading my time for money and it was a really bad deal.” (11:55 | Keith Roberts)
• “Writing things down, doubles the probability of accomplishing them.” (12:29 | Keith Roberts)
• “Aligning the frequency in what you’re putting out in the world—what vibrations, what you’re attracting, what you’re manifesting, that abundance vs scarcity mindset—you’re doing that every single day by your gratitude and then journaling positive thoughts. Like you mentioned, every day has a prompt, and it’s not ‘What’s frustrating you today?’ Every single one of them is intentionally positive to help you have that right mindset and vibrating at the frequency that’s going to attract your best life.” (15:41 | Keith Roberts)
• “If you repeat something you’re grateful for, you’re getting diminishing returns. The more specific you can be with your gratitude, the better the ROI is going to get as far as the neurotransmitters.” (17:39 | Keith Roberts)
• “I’d built it to the point where it became my identity, and when I was trying to come up with my personal ‘why?’ I kept framing it through the lens of this agency that had become my identity. And my ‘why’ is not selling more Frontier Airlines tickets or houses for RE/MAX or Bijou—which is this Chinese moonshine, the biggest-selling liquor in the world, we did a site for them so—it didn’t have anything to with what I had built and I had to get over this concept of ‘sunk equity.’”(35:10 | Keith Roberts)

Links

Connect with Keith Roberts:

Website: https://keithrobertsiii.com/

OAK Journal: https://oakjournal.com/

Connect with Alex Raymond:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afraymond/

Website: https://consciousentrepreneur.us/

HiveCast.fm is a proud sponsor of The Conscious Entrepreneur Podcast.

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm